Emma.
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| c. Focus Features LLC |
Directed by Autumn DeWilde
Starring Anya Taylor-Joy, Johnny Flynn, Bill Nighy, Mia Goth, Callum Turner, Josh O'Connor
"Emma Woodhouse, handsome, clever, and rich, with a comfortable home and happy disposition, seemed to unite some of the best blessings of existence; and had lived nearly twenty-one years in the world with very little to distress or vex her." In summary, she's bored. The movie opens with the marriage of Emma's governess, Miss Taylor, to Mr. Weston. Emma is convinced because she introduced them, therefore she made the match. She decides to take on a protégée and do some more matchmaking. Harriet Smith, a parlor boarder at Miss Goddard's School, is the natural daughter of nobody knows who. While Harriet has feelings for Robert Martin, a farmer, Emma imagines Harriet's father is a nobleman and Harriet can do better than a mere farmer. Enter a slew of suitors with some interesting results. Throw in one bossy neighbor, a talkative spinster, a hypochondriac father and you get an entertaining story with a bit of social commentary thrown in.
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I had low expectations coming into this so I was pleasantly surprised. I enjoyed it very much but it's not my favorite adaptation. Anya Taylor-Joy was a delight as Emma. Emma is not a likable character and I felt she portrayed that. Mia Goth is acceptable as naive Harriet. Miranda Hart as Miss Bates is decent. She runs on and on well but the script didn't do justice to the real tragedy that is Miss Bates's life. There's no mention of how she was once the vicar's daughter which gave her a high status in the community. She's now an impoverished country spinster dependent upon the generosity of others. She can't go where she wants, when she wants and must wait to be invited. This is only briefly conveyed by her excitement over being invited to tea at Hartfield. Tanya Reynolds as Mrs. Elton was appropriately awful but again she was downplayed in the script. Her personality was more conveyed through her clothes and hairstyle. The women were mostly pretty good.
The men, however, were mostly lacking. Josh O'Connor (Larry Durrell) as Mr. Elton is perfect! He was funny, smarmy and an foppish.
Mr. Knightley and Frank Churchill were terribly miscast. Since when is Mr. Knightley an emotional dandy? Those shirt points were way too high for a country gentleman who actually oversees management of his estate, walks across fields, etc. The actor was wooden and didn't have any chemistry with his leading lady. Mr. Knightley was just awful. He's some weird, emo dude falling on the floor in angst filled fits and running around like a maniac. His chemistry with Emma is next to none and he has lost his playful sense of humor. I didn't find him very attractive. Johnny Lee Miller is my Mr. Knightley of choice!
Frank Churchill cut got down in size to a minor character. Frank's blunder and the letters game were left out entirely. I was disappointed they cut out the parts where Jane Fairfax is upset by Frank and Emma's flirting and how she was going to sell herself in the governess trade. Cutting that out ruined Frank Churchill's plot and Emma's growth.
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| Josh O'Connor as Mr. Elton c. Focus Features LLC |
Mr. Knightley and Frank Churchill were terribly miscast. Since when is Mr. Knightley an emotional dandy? Those shirt points were way too high for a country gentleman who actually oversees management of his estate, walks across fields, etc. The actor was wooden and didn't have any chemistry with his leading lady. Mr. Knightley was just awful. He's some weird, emo dude falling on the floor in angst filled fits and running around like a maniac. His chemistry with Emma is next to none and he has lost his playful sense of humor. I didn't find him very attractive. Johnny Lee Miller is my Mr. Knightley of choice!
Frank Churchill cut got down in size to a minor character. Frank's blunder and the letters game were left out entirely. I was disappointed they cut out the parts where Jane Fairfax is upset by Frank and Emma's flirting and how she was going to sell herself in the governess trade. Cutting that out ruined Frank Churchill's plot and Emma's growth.
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| Johnny Flynn as Mr. Knightley c. Focus Features LLC |
Mr. Woodehouse, hypochondriac, is very spritely for an invalid! Standing straight, jumping down stairs, going to weddings-that's not Jane Austen's Mr. Woodhouse. I love Bill Nighy but he's not Mr. Woodhouse. The real Mr. Woodhouse is a semi-invalid who fears everything. This Mr. Woodhouse is a contradiction. He fears drafts but it able to jump up at a moment's notice. It's very weird. I rather prefer Michael Gambon as Mr. Woodhouse in in the 2009 TV adaptation.
I also felt they cut too much about Miss Bates, her garrulousness and her poverty. She's very fashionably dressed for an impoverished spinster!
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| Mia Goth and Anya Taylor-Joy as Harriet and Emma c. Focus Features LLC |
The twist at the end with Harriet was stupid and unrealistic.
Some of the context got lost in translation.
- The farmer, Robert Martin, is no mere farm laborer. He's a tenant farmer on his way to gentility. This should be shown by his house and his little gifts to Harriet- going three miles round just to bring her walnuts, selling his wool for more than anybody around, having parlor and spending the evening in leisure and knowing how to read. He's a good catch for someone like Harriet.
- The class thing is also left out of the Weston/Churchill family plot. Mr. Weston is comfortably situated NOW because he's engaged in trade but when his first wife died and Frank was young, he was in the militia and not rich. When I explained this to my dad, he said "Oh ok. So they're middle class?" That needed explanation or else the viewer is left wondering why Frank was adopted.
- The same with Miss Bates's poverty. It's barely there.
- The little subtle social gestures are needed like Mr. Knightley bringing Emma's arm to his heart. (whoo... racy for Jane Austen). "For a moment or two nothing was said, and she was unsuspicious of having excited any particular interest, till she found her arm drawn within his, and pressed against his heart," (Chp. 49). These subtitles help the reader or viewer understand the time period and characters better. However, the script does quote from the original novel quite a bit so huzzah! (see the 2005 version of Pride and Prejudice for how NOT to write a Jane Austen adaptation).
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- The scenery, the houses, the women's clothes were all EXQUISITE! Emma's pink spencer and some of her other gowns were copies of actual period pieces.
- The men's costumes were not so great.
What was especially nice about the costumes is that the underpinnings are correct as well and shown on screen. The same with nightwear. It's nice to see the characters are real flesh and blood people who wear underwear and nightgowns and put their hair in curl rags. Emma's perfection is not that of a carved statue. It takes work.
- The music was an odd, eclectic mix of period classical music and noisy folk tunes that may be appropriate for a film set in the country but jar with the perfect drawing room setting of the story.
- On the plus side, the actresses playing Emma and Jane perform their own musical numbers which adds to the authenticity of the story.
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| promotional denim bag from Emma. and Focus Features LLC. |
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I did not at all mind Emma bearing her bum by the fire. She was alone and it's taken from a satirical print so it's possible some women did do that. They'd never admit it! Mr. Knightley getting dressed was another scene of partial-nudity and it wasn't much. I liked seeing the way gentlemen got dressed. EVERYONE focuses on women's fashions and the men I've seen at Jane Austen events were either in military dress or their wives dressed them in some semblance of period costume, if they were in costume at all. I've read a lot of Regency romances where the hero's sartorial splendor plays a large role and it was great to see it in real life. I didn't mind the "make-out" scene. That was way more tame than I was expecting. The nose bleed scene was funny and weird.
Overall, I enjoyed this adaptation. I haven't seen the version with Kate Beckinsale for awhile. I'd need to refresh my memory to rank them properly.
See my review of Emma 1996 and Emma 2009.
A big thank you to Focus Features for putting out the film OnDemand early due to the COVID-19 situation. I didn't get to see it before theaters closed. Next time, I don't wait for my mom to have time to join me!
I liked this adaptation too, though it took some getting used to. It's definitely different. Emma is not idealized and feels right. Love the very last image of the movie, her eyes closed, as if ready to take a uncertain plunge into a new life.
ReplyDeleteThe folk songs seemed nothing to do with Austen, completely from out of another century, but I liked them a lot.
I like the 2009 version too, even if Emma doesn't seem quite right.
Thanks for the review and particularly the details about Robert Martin and Frank Churchill. Interesting blog!